Samsung's New Compact Is The Cam For The Digital Age

Based on the range of products produced by Samsung lately, there's an impression the company's different departmentsâ€”camera, computing, smartphones, etcâ€”are working closer together as to benefit connectivity between their devices.

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The latest product released by Samsung, the WB250F SmartCam is yet another example, not only because it comes equipped with built in WiFi, but because it works in conjunction with your Android smartphone. In essence, you take a photo and the camera automatically sends the photo to your smartphone or tablet over their shared WiFi connection. This feature is aptly called AutoShare and it's one of the many enhancements owed to Samsung's Smart Camera App.

Having WiFi on board opens up other possibilities too. Captured photos can be edited right from the camera and uploaded to Facebook, YouTube or Microsoft's SkyDrive, completely bypassing the need for a computer. A direct link buttonâ€”featured on the top of the cameraâ€”can be programmed to upload photos to your nominated favourite, whether that's a social network or cloud storage.

On the hardware side, it has a 14.2MP BSI CMOS sensor, a 24mm wide angle lens capable of 18x optical zoom and a 3 inch touch screen on the back. Samsung refer to it as a "hybrid touch", because users can navigate via the touchscreen and the traditional navigation keys.

Its ISO range is right on the money for a compact cam, starting from ISO 100 and reaching ISO 3200, as are videos, which are captured in Full HD (1080p) at 30 frames per second.

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Scrutinising this camera's image quality is almost unfair because most of these pictures will have their quality reduced by Facebook or its equivalent, and viewed on digital screens. Having said that, during our brief 'hands on' with the WB250F, we believe it performed reasonably well.

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It's not necessarily the photo quality that makes the WB250F a great camera. Instead it boils down to its great connectivity suite and its low $279 price tag. If you're a plugged in person looking for a capable compact cam, check out Samsung's WB250F in either white or cobalt black.